‘Nashville’ Creator Shares Her Hopes for Season 5

A premiere date for Season 5 of Nashville has not yet been announced, but during a recent appearance at a Tennessee Screenwriting Association seminar, series creator Callie Khouri opened up about some potential future plotlines.

“One thing I would like to deal with is the collapse of the music business and just how hard it is,” Khouri told her audience (quote via CMT). “This stuff is really hard. You can’t just put out a record and suddenly it’s No. 1 and all of a sudden they’re big stars; that’s not how it happens. So, I think we are going to deal more with the struggle of it.

"I think that’s a truer representation of what’s really going on," she continues. "And I think the public should be aware of the fact that what’s common practice out in the universe, paying for Spotify or Pandora, is bankrupting the music industry.”

“I’m not going to tell you! I’m not telling you anything," Khouri said at the panel. "You’ll have to wait and see.”

Following ABC’s cancellation of Nashville in mid-May, and thanks in part to fan demand, CMT picked up the show for a fifth season in early June. Nashville will be broadcast and streamed on CMT, and also streamed on Hulu, which currently carries the show’s previous seasons. Khouri notes that the network is "very interested in telling the same kinds of stories that I am, which is more emotional but less soapy."

“It’s certainly a good fit for CMT as they try and get into a scripted universe," Khouri adds. "Our show is a quality show just in terms of production; we spend a lot of money making it look great. I think it’s a really good fit.”

Prior to ABC’s decision to cancel Nashville, Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz had been hired as Season 5’s showrunners. The show's production company, Lionsgate, has long-term deals with Nashville‘s castmembers, but it's been reported that Will Chase (aka Luke Wheeler) and Aubrey Peeples (aka Layla Grant) are unlikely to return.